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#46. Erick Rowan
Erick Rowan, or “upside down Sheamus“, has been one of the highlights of year alongside partner Luke Harper. Whether it was on NXT or Raw, Rowan has been a part of some of the best tag matches of the year, even holding the NXT Tag Team Championships for a bit. Unfortunately, Rowan hasn’t really been a part of the best singles matches of the year, as his partner Luke Harper is usually chosen to go solo in a match. Maybe next year Harper can watch him wrestle Daniel Bryan a gazillion times on Smackdown.
#45. Samoa JoeSamoa Joe was basically a background character this entire year. Whether it was during the war against Aces and Eights or the battle for the X-Division Championship, Samoa Joe was always just in the background. Like a new girlfriend in a family photo. But while Samoa Joe was never the main focus, he did still put on some great matches. Samoa Joe was as good as ever in-ring this year, and hopefully he can be the main character next year instead of the sidekick.
#44. Goldust
What a comeback! After being fired a year or two ago for giving the okay to a dangerous spot, Goldust made his return to WWE late in the year to fight for his brother’s job. Fast forward two months, and Goldy is the highlight of Raw and Smackdown every week. I don’t know what happened when he was gone, but Goldust has gotten WAY better than he was before. I don’t ever remember Goldy doing diving Huricanrana’s before. While his current Tag Team Championship run with his brother Cody is entertaining, his inevitable heel turn and feud with Cody for WrestleMania XXX will be even better.
#43. James StormJames Storm is pretty lame. His whole gimmick is just a less-cool version of Stone Cole Steve Austin who yells all his promos like the audience is partially deaf. What do you do with a lame person? You pair him up with another lame person of course! Storm spent most of the year teaming with fellow obvious republican Gunner, holding the Tag Team Championships. That is until they were beaten by Robbie E and Jessie Godderz. Yup. Anyways, it looks like Storm is on a collision path with Gunner, which should be a giant lame feud full of cowboy hats and country music. Sorry about our damn luck.
#42. Jimmy Jacobs
After spending half the year being a part of Steve Corino’s S.C.U.M. faction, Jimmy Jacobs re-emerged as a babyface trying to regain the respect of the ROH locker room. Ever since than, Jimmy Jacobs has been having awesome matches and just being and awesome in general. Not that he wasn’t awesome before, it’s just hard to show your awesomeness when your a part of ROH’s version of Aces and Eights. Jacobs even main evented a show facing Adam Cole for the World Championship. While I don’t think Jacobs is going to win any championships next year, I do think he’ll be a more prominent figure in ROH, and more Jimmy means more awesomeness.
#41. Mark Briscoe
Talk about being the Jannety, right? In a weird case where one of two brothers who look the same and basically have the same amount of wrestling skill gets chosen to be World Champion while the other is chosen to keep being a lowcarder, Mark became the lowcarder. In my opinion, none of the Briscoes should be World Champion, but if you’re going to have one of them win it might as well have the other beat them for it, right? Brotherly feud? No? Okay then, I guess we’ll just send Mark to wrestle Silas Young in the opener while his brother main events the PPV. It’s kind of like Harlem Heat but with rednecks.
